On October 4, 2008, two hunters in Elk County, Pennsylvania, encountered something strange which they are still trying to find an explanation for. The two men entered the woods at about 4:45 a.m. It had been raining, and it was very dark. For lighting they had only a "hat light" and a mini mag light.

As the fellows walked further into the wooded area, they heard the sound of a coyote howl and the two men stopped. A short time later, they heard coyotes howling from various locations all around the woods. It appeared to be three different packs of the animals. The men had hunted quite often. The one witness told me that he had never heard so many coyotes howling like that before. At times, it was hard for the two men to communicate with each other.

Suddenly about 150-200 yards ahead on the other side of a field, they noticed two very dim glowing lights. The lights were about the size of a baseball and about two feet apart, and estimated to be about 15 feet above the ground. They glowed, "like the indiglo color of a watch." The two men thought the lights were odd, but considered that maybe there were some hunters ahead. The men shut off their lights. As they walked forward, in the distance toward where they saw the first glowing lights, they now observed what looked like a flashlight beam flashing back and forth between the tree line.

They did not think this was odd, since it was archery season, and there was the possibility that other hunters were in the area. Within minutes of seeing the single light beam, about 10 individual white beams of light suddenly appeared. These light beams which "flashed around," seemed to originate from one point, and were not moving around as if being carried by someone. The beams appeared to be about 10 feet above the ground, and projected parallel with the ground, and extended straight out from the originating location.

The other hunter asked out loud, "how many are there?" It seemed odd to the two hunters that these lights did not seem to be trying to find a path through the woods. The men were confused as to what they were seeing. Their attention was then drawn to a glowing figure, moving from the area of the beams of light. "It seemed as though one light beam led it to the field." The glowing human-like form moved about 20 feet out into a grass field. The grass in the area was about six inches tall. The other beams of light suddenly went out.

One witness described the being as similar to "a silhouette of a person just glowing, completely glowing." The man said the best way to describe what they saw was if someone took glow in the dark paint, and rubbed it on a person's body. The being was estimated to be about three feet tall, the head may have been a little larger than a human, and the upper part of the body seemed to lean forward.

The arms appeared to hang straight down, and were longer than that of a human. The legs were hard to see, as the glow was blocking out the shape. The color of the glow was described as a light green, lime color. The being seemed to be moving at twice the speed of the two men, who were walking fast. It actually gave the impression that it was gliding, and no sound was heard.

The one man recalled that he was becoming quite shook up during the incident, and he began to whistle out loud. Moments later, the being, which had been moving steadily, just"stopped on a dime." It remained motionless for about 30 seconds. It then moved about 20 feet into the field, "then suddenly just vanished." It disappeared in front of their eyes, and was not seen again. Within about two minutes after the being disappeared, all of the coyotes in the area suddenly stopped howling. The entire incident lasted a total of about five minutes.

As one witness told me, "I know what I saw. I just don't know what it was." The men went back to the location later that day and looked around for any traces where they had seen the lights and the mysterious being, but nothing was found. The men tried to rationalize what they had experienced, and would be interested to know if anyone has seen anything similar in that area.

This incident occurred amongst a series of other UFO reports, which have been ongoing across Pennsylvania in recent weeks and months. Actually, UFO activity has been active all year across the state. My PA UFO Hotline, as well as the National UFO Reporting Center, and the PA MUFON, have all been receiving sighting reports. While there have been numerous observations reported in the eastern part of the state, there has also been UFO activity in the southwestern areas as well. Among the recent UFO sightings which I have been investigating are the following.

About 2 a.m. on the morning of August 12, 2008, a witness who lives in a rural area between Greensburg and Youngwood, PA, in Westmoreland County, observed a bright light shining in a window. Upon looking outside, the witness observed what was described as two huge double headlights side by side. The lights, which had a yellow cast to them, were just across the road in front of another house, and very low above the ground. At first the observer thought that it must have been a helicopter, but there was no sound, and no rotor blades were apparent. After several minutes, the lights rose very slowly, and moved off into the sky over the trees.

There were a number of independent UFO reports from Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, reported during the early morning hours of September 5, 2008. About 12:30 a.m., near New Stanton, a witness observed some oddities in the sky. In the distance, what looked like a fire in the sky above a tree line was observed. (Another similar report came in later from another area.) The luminous display soon disappeared, and a strange object was soon observed in the western sky. This object was round and glowed white, with flashing blue and red lights at the bottom area. The object suddenly vanished, as though someone turned off a power switch.

A second object soon appeared toward the south. This object was moving and was larger in size than the first, and somewhat football shaped. This object moved rather fast, and appeared to drop close to the ground in the distance. With binoculars, the glowing white object, appeared to be perfectly round, with glowing red rectangular lights that did not flash, and were evenly spaced around the outside perimeter.

At almost the same time, another report was received from a man who was driving near South Park, outside of Pittsburgh. The driver suddenly observed two brilliant lights which were equally spaced, which he noticed as they came into view above his windshield. The lights came from the back of his car, and had moved towards the front. Within seconds, a second set of similar lights came into view. These lights were about three feet in diameter and did not blink.

The driver indicated that the layout of the lights would mimic the proportions generally of a standard piece of typing paper with a large light at each corner. The lights seemed to be attached to an object, which was estimated to be about 20 feet wide, and 50 feet long. The object was no more than 100 feet above the ground and was completely silent. The object made a sharp bank and accelerated into the sky above some trees.

At about 2:50 a.m. that same morning near Jeannette, a large orange ball of light was observed moving slowly across the clear sky. The light was estimated to be about a 1,000 feet up, moving east to west, and seemed to be almost floating. It suddenly vanished from sight as though someone shut off a switch.

I am looking into a number of other recent UFO reports. If you have any information on these cases, or if you have seen anything strange in Pennsylvania, please get in contact with me.

Mahatma Gandhi's birthday seems like a good time to remind some of you about tabla master ALOKE DUTTA's performance in DENVER on OCTOBER 18. Aloke and KATALYST will be doing their thing at THE MERCURY CAFE (2199 California Street, Denver, CO.), with the all-ages show starting at 9 PM. For more information, contact Dave at katalystmusic3@yahoo.com.

Engineers long have known that great ideas can be lifted from Mother Nature, but a new paper* by researchers at Yale University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) takes it to a cellular level. Applying modern engineering design tools to one of the basic units of life, they argue that artificial cells could be built that not only replicate the electrical behavior of electric eel cells but in fact improve on them. Artificial versions of the eel’s electricity generating cells could be developed as a power source for medical implants and other tiny devices, they say.

The paper, according to NIST engineer David LaVan, is an example of the relatively new field of systems biology. “Do we understand how a cell produces electricity well enough to design one—and to optimize that design?” he asks.

Electric eels channel the output of thousands of specialized cells called electrocytes to generate electric potentials of up to 600 volts, according to biologists. The mechanism is similar to nerve cells. The arrival of a chemical signal triggers the opening of highly selective channels in a cell membrane causing sodium ions to flow in and potassium ions to flow out. The ion swap increases the voltage across the membrane, which causes even more channels to open. Past a certain point the process becomes self-perpetuating, resulting in an electric pulse traveling through the cell. The channels then close and alternate paths open to “pump” the ions back to their initial concentrations during a “resting” state.

In all, according LaVan, there are at least seven different types of channels, each with several possible variables to tweak, such as their density in the membrane. Nerve cells, which move information rather than energy, can fire rapidly but with relatively little power. Electrocytes have a slower cycle, but deliver more power for longer periods. LaVan and partner Jian Xu developed a complex numerical model to represent the conversion of ion concentrations to electrical impulses and tested it against previously published data on electrocytes and nerve cells to verify its accuracy. Then they considered how to optimize the system to maximize power output by changing the overall mix of channel types.

Their calculations show that substantial improvements are possible. One design for an artificial cell generates more than 40 percent more energy in a single pulse than a natural electrocyte. Another would produce peak power outputs over 28 percent higher. In principle, say the authors, stacked layers of artificial cells in a cube slightly over 4 mm on a side are capable of producing continuous power output of about 300 microwatts to drive small implant devices. The individual components of such artificial cells—including a pair of artificial membranes separated by an insulated partition and ion channels that could be created by engineering proteins—already have been demonstrated by other researchers. Like the natural counterpart, the cell’s energy source would be adenosine triphosphate (ATP), synthesized from the body’s sugars and fats using tailored bacteria or mitochondria.

Evey: All this riot and uproar, V... is this Anarchy? Is this the Land of Do-As-You-Please?
V: No. This is only the land of take-what-you-want. Anarchy means "without leaders", not "without order". With anarchy comes an age or ordnung, of true order, which is to say voluntary order... this age of ordung will begin when the mad and incoherent cycle of verwirrung that these bulletins reveal has run its course... This is not anarchy, Eve. This is chaos.

Evey: All this riot and uproar, V... is this Anarchy? Is this the Land of Do-As-You-Please?
V: No. This is only the land of take-what-you-want. Anarchy means "without leaders", not "without order". With anarchy comes an age or ordnung, of true order, which is to say voluntary order... this age of ordung will begin when the mad and incoherent cycle of verwirrung that these bulletins reveal has run its course... This is not anarchy, Eve. This is chaos.

Geckos have long inspired scientists and super-hero fans alike with their ability to scamper up vertical walls and cling to ceilings with a single toe. In recent years, people have attempted to create materials that match those spectacular abilities, in the hope of creating new advanced adhesives, or even car braking systems.

Now US chemists claim to have made one based on nanotubes that it is 10 times stickier than some gecko feet. Even more impressively, like a real gecko foot, it can also be easily unstuck with a tug in the right direction.

Gecko's superhero toes are covered in microscopic hairs, known as setae, with even smaller branches at the tips, called spatulae.

These ensure that a gecko's foot has a large surface area in contact with any surface, maximising the weak but ever-present attraction between adjacent molecules known as the van der Waals force.
Glass gripper

Chemists led by Liming Dai of University of Dayton, Ohio and Zhong Lin Wang of Georgia Institute of Technology, made their artificial setae by growing nested carbon nanotubes on a silicon wafer.

They controlled the growth process to make a forest of vertical nanotube trunks turning into a canopy of tangled ends on top. The curly entangled mess acts like natural spatulae – when pressed against a surface, they have a large contact area and hence a strong hold.

The new material was tested for stickiness on surfaces ranging from Teflon to sandpaper. Attached to a glass surface, a 4mm2 piece of the material can support over 1600 grams when pulled roughly parallel to the surface (see video, right).

That is around 10 times better than some species of gecko and three times better than the best artificial competitor.

But removing a pad of the material is simple, unlike some rival materials. Pulling it perpendicular to a surface means only the tips of the nanotubes remain in contact with the surface, and the setae will easily loosen their grip. A weight of 160 grams on the tiny sample is enough to do that.
New glue?

Kellar Autumn from the Lewis and Clark College, Oregon, was the first to suggest that the gecko's stickiness was down to geometry rather than the chemistry of its feet (see Gecko's gravity-defying trick explained). "The ability of this material to support large shear loads and to detach easily is very encouraging," he told New Scientist.

He points out, though, that although a person can easily stick the material to a surface, it requires much more force to apply than real gecko setae. A 4 millimetre2 piece of the new material needs about 2 kilograms of force to stick, compared to the few grams required by a real gecko or some synthetic rivals.

Liming thinks his material should still be able to replace glue and other forms of adhesion. For example, because nanotubes are excellent conductors, the carbon setae could replace solder in electronics. The material could also be valuable in the vacuum of space, where traditional adhesives dry out quickly, he says.

As for superhero suits, Liming says: "We will exploit this possibility, if there is a serious need."

Economics is likely to play a deciding role too – carbon nanotubes are not cheap to produce. But the price has already declined more than a thousand fold over the last few years as fabrication processes have improved. Liming says dropping prices will eventually make it possible to produce his material in rolls rather than one-off sections.

The last of the Seven Ancient Wonders gets a twenty-first century facelift, but pleasing everyone proves to be a difficult task
The site of the 5,000-year-old Giza Pyramids is now up to speed with the twenty-first century, complete with cameras, lasers and control rooms. Last month, part of a multi-phase plan to renovate the site of the only remaining Wonder of the Ancient World was completed, a modern makeover cooked up by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) to make the Giza Plateau more tourist-friendly.

The first phase, costing roughly LE 60 million, includes an 18-kilometer-long steel fence equipped with 199 closed circuit TV cameras, infrared motion sensors and elaborate control rooms placed alongside the fence. In addition to the reinforced boundaries, the plan dedicated one of three entrances, the one near the Mena House Oberoi Resort, as the primary security entrance, kitted out with x-ray machines and metal detectors.

While the modernizing of the most ancient site in the world — one that was previously an uncontrolled sandbox of pandemonium — has tourists and international media impressed, it has left local peddlers and bazaar sellers locked out and worried about their livelihood.

According to Sabri Abd El Eziz, assistant to SCA Secretary General Zahi Hawass, the plan was put in motion about seven years ago. After finishing site management for all the areas in Upper Egypt — including Abu Simbel, Luxor, Philae and Kom Ombo — the SCA’s plan for 2008-2009 was to focus on the pyramids. “There are roughly 6,000 to 10,000 visitors daily at the Pyramids and though we accommodate them easily, there was a need for a [facelift],” says Abd El Eziz.

A principal reason for the developments was that the SCA, although part of the Ministry of Culture, needs to find ways to be self-sufficient. “The SCA doesn’t take money from the government; we depend on entrance fees and exhibitions both locally and abroad, as well as royalties,” says Abd El Eziz. With the previously lax control over the Pyramids area, income from entrance fees was approximately LE 300,000 daily. “After the fence and the setting-up of a proper entrance, income is now around LE 800,000 [] and that’s money that we use for maintaining museums and restoring antiquities.”

In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female Atlantic blacktip shark in the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center contained no genetic material from a male.

The first documented case of asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, among sharks involved a pup born to a hammerhead at an Omaha, Neb., zoo.

"This first case was no fluke," Demian Chapman, a shark scientist and lead author of the second study, said in a statement. "It is quite possible that this is something female sharks of many species can do on occasion."

The aquarium sharks that reproduced without mates each carried only one pup, while some shark species can produce litters numbering in the dozen or more. The scientists cautioned that the rare asexual births should not be viewed as a possible solution to declining global shark populations.

Solar cells that are transparent enough to be used to tint windows on buildings or cars, have been developed by U.S researchers.

Conventional solar cells are bulky and rigid but lightweight cells are usually far less efficient. However, a new method of making the silicon-based devices could create thin, flexible cells without any trade-offs.

Brittle wafers of silicon are sliced into ultra-thin pieces and carefully 'printed' onto a malleable surface. The cells are so flexible they can be rolled around a pencil.

It’s a mystery that has got British law enforcement officials and others across the planet scratching their heads. Put bluntly, enough heroin to supply the world’s demand for years has simply disappeared.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) describes the situation as “a time bomb for public health and global security”.

This week’s Map of the Week comes courtesy of the UNODC. It shows their latest estimate of opium production in Afghanistan - another bumper year.

A crop of 7,700 tonnes will produce around 1,100 tonnes of heroin - it basically works on a 7:1 ratio.The mystery is that the global demand for heroin is less than half that. In other words, Afghanistan only needs to produce 3,500 tonnes to satisfy every known heroin user on the planet.

Look at the graph, though.

For the past three years, production has been running at almost twice the level of global demand. The numbers just don’t add up.

This movie is in production right now. I just ran across the site at americanthemovie.com and dug up this information at IMDB:

Matt Harlock has been writing/directing film for 10 years through his own production company halflife films. His current film project is ‘American: The Bill Hicks Story’, a new feature length documentary for the BBC and DVD release that Matt developed with Paul Thomas after establishing contact with the Hick’s estate over four years ago by organising tribute nights to the late comedian in London.

This is not the same as the possible film about Bill Hicks, with Russell Crowe. Either way, something tells me we’ll be hearing a lot more about Bill Hicks next year.